A couple of weeks ago I attended a collage workshop at Light Work in Syracuse, NY with artist Suné Woods. I had seen the event on Facebook and immediately signed up. One of my big goals this year was to re-focus on my own art practice and I saw this workshop as an opportunity to actually MAKE SOMETHING. The first half of the workshop was an artist talk with Suné in her exhibition and then a presentation where she shared with us artists that influenced her. This all lead up to us sitting around a table covered in magazines, glue, and scissors. I was in heaven! Seriously, what better way to spend a day?

As I stood by the edge of the table glancing over the stack of magazines I spotted a space-themed National Geographic and lunged for it! The three collages above are the pieces I made during the workshop. I worked fast. I tried not to “think too much.” I am super pleased with the results.

This exercise was exactly the kick in the butt I needed! I feel refreshed. I feel inspired.

After returning to Rochester after my blissful collage workshop experience I was invited to Visual Studies Workshop for – wait for it – a collage workshop with their Project Space artist Nancy Topolski. It’s like the universe was trying to tell me something. Above is the collage I made at VSW. This was a very different process. We only used black and white photocopies, and we had access to a photocopier so you could enlarge or shrink images as you wished. I made this in about 15mins. Again, like the collages I made in Suné’s workshop, I wanted to focus more on how I was reacting to what I was making and not on the thinking about what I should make.

It’s currently 86.1*F in my apartment right now – on September 26th! Yuck. I can’t sleep, so naturally I completely redesigned my website and in doing so decided to move my blog back over here to wordpress.com from the wordpress blog I was hosting on my own. My attempt at trying to simplify! I did import as many of my old blog posts as I could (I’m missing 2008-2009) so right now everything up to this post is kind of a mess. So, I’m hitting the RESET button and everything going forward from today is all I’m thinking about rather than trying to reformat and sort through 8yrs of blog posts. Yikes!

I have been talking about returning to the darkroom for nearly a year – I finally got the kick in the butt I needed! One of my instructors at work was unable to teach a pinhole camera event last night so I jumped at the opportunity. I LOVE pinhole cameras. So fun! More about the event in a later post…

It was great being back under the safelights with the smell of fixer in the air. I picked up a couple of rolls of Ilford HP5 Plus and plan on shooting them tomorrow so I can process the film on Monday. Again, it’s been several years since I processed film. Wish me luck!

Labor Day was last weekend which marks the end of summer. Fall is almost here – even though it is currently 87*F in my apartment as I’m typing this.

A lot has happened over the last several months but, not a lot has changed. I was scrolling back through this blog and found my post about balance. I wrote that nearly a year ago and I have failed miserably at finding a balance. I’ve said it several times – and maybe this time it will stick – this blog is a huge part of that balance because it is MINE and about ME. I need to re-focus my energy back to this blog. I miss writing for writing’s sake.

I redesigned this blog earlier today. A fresh look for a new season and renewed interest in this blog. Cheers!

Last night was my third handbuilding class (I missed week 3 – bummer!) and I got a lot done. I finished my lidded bowl! After decorating the lid by carving little starbursts I then made the final touch – the base. I decided I didn’t want to add an attached foot to the bowl but, make a separate base. I like the idea of there being these three pieces and with the base I shaped it so that the bowl/sphere will sit on the base slightly off-center. I’m really happy with the way it’s come along and I’m finally appreciating the many imperfections. These pieces are still too wet to go to the kiln, so hopefully I’ll be able to send them next week. I’m looking forward to bringing this home and placing it on my bookshelf!

I also got my two pinch-pots and coil-pot back from the kiln! See how they are different colors? Next week we’re learning about glazing and I CANNOT WAIT! I’m so excited to add color to these pieces – my coil-pot needs all the help it can get! Ha!

In the last 30mins of class I started two more projects – more on those next week! I’m actually hoping to go to open studio hours later this week to continue working on them. We shall see.

Catching up on posts! Week 2 my two pinch-pots and coil-pot had dried enough since week 1 to go to the kiln for firing (you can’t put wet clay in the kiln!). Before sending the pots to the kiln I covered two in a white slip (liquid clay) which apparently will effect the color of the glazing later on. I left one of my pinch-pots sans-slip so I could compare the glazes.

See that sphere? That’s the sphere I made week 1 and week 2 I cut it in half and carved out the inside. Why? To make a lidded bowl! This project in particular has really made me stop and chill. I so badly want everything to be perfect, but this is handbuilding – HANDMADE – of course it isn’t going to be perfect.

Week 2 I also got a crash-course in making a slab. My instructor can make a slab by hand but, thankfully there is also a machine in the studio that presses a slab for me! I attempted to throw a slab by hand and it didn’t go well. Looks like I need to go in for open studio hours to work on coil-pots and slabs!

I’m taking my first ceramics class – and it’s a lot of fun. I’m currently in week 4 (catching up on posts!) and 1/2 way through the class. What’s the class? Handbuilding, at Genesee Center, taught by Ian Park.

It’s kind of hard documenting this class like I did when I took Lovin’ Letterpress at the Center. My hands are 99% of the time covered in clay – obviously. Each class I’ve tried to snap a few pics to share to Instagram but, wow, these photos do not do this class justice.

Week 1 I made two pinch-pots, one coil-pot (not shown), and one sphere (not shown). I really enjoyed making the pinch-pots! I was not a fan of the coil-pot. The sphere was maddening – ha! With my pinch-pots I added a “foot” to my second one after leaving my first pot very basic. Both pots have been through the kiln (bisque) and are ready for glaze. I’m VERY EXCITED to learn about glazing. I’m a sucker for blue glaze! I don’t really have a good photo of my coil-pot to share, but it isn’t that exciting anyways. I actually need to challenge myself to go in during open studio hours and make another coil-pot. Practice makes perfect, right? It was making the coils that was hard – I just couldn’t get the coils even, they would crack… it was a mess. As for the sphere (I’ll share a photo of that in my next post) we made a solid sphere of clay to later make a lidded bowl! Cool, right?